Though it has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, Weather Network forecasters say the storm could re-strengthen to a hurricane by Monday. Life-threatening storm surge and flooding rains continue with tropical storm watches and warnings in effect all the way up the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture erupted early Saturday, belching a column of ash 11,000 meters into the air. The explosive eruption occurred around 1:46 a.m. on one of the peaks of the 1,592-meter-high mountain, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

It was the first explosive eruption at that particular peak since January 1980. The agency raised the alert level for the volcano to level 3 on a scale of 5 and urged people not to approach the mountain.

Hurricane Matthew has caused about 900 deaths in Haiti. However, given the official way that the government counts the dead, there are manydeceased Haitians that won't be officially counted as they were buried or washed away.

Just as the impoverished island nation, bereft of resources and capacity, struggled to prepare for the storm, the recovery has been hampered by the same shortcomings. And communications have been scattered. Although news outlets are reporting nearly 900 dead, the government has for two days insisted on a figure less than half of that.That gap is partly the result of how the deaths are reported. The government is counting only those it can verify, a formal process that cannot be completed until access to areas cut off by the storm is restored. But in towns like Port-Salut, many have already buried their dead or stopped searching for loved ones carried away in the storm surge.

“Honestly, we don’t even know how many died,” said Sanite Moïse, seated with a group of women washing clothes in a shallow flood pool. Small children bathed in the murky water.

Mrs. Moïse said her 77-year-old father had died a few days earlier, drowned in the floods that engulfed his home near the beach. When she went to look for him, there was nothing left — just an embankment and washed-up debris. The house, she said, was gone.

Communities in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are recovering after being slammed by the remnants of Hurricane Matthew and a system off the coast of the Carolinas. Thousands of people in Cape Breton are preparing to spend 40 hours without electricity as Nova Scotia Power works overtime to reconnect them. About 50,000 Nova Scotia Power customers lost electricity Tuesday after high winds and heavy rain felled power lines Monday.

Mother Nature is definitely working overtime from coast to coast, around the world. East Coast Canada gets Matthew and the West coast is about to be slammed by the remnants of Typhoon Songda this weekend.

Snow systems are top of mind for parts of North America this week. Planning on flying out from an airport? Best to check the weather forecast well in advance and have alternate plans for travel or staying longer at the airport. Also check your flight information at the airport via website online.It's the second very cold day with windchill in Southern Ontario-parts of Ontario have had snow events that have closed roads. Even Toronto Pearson airport had some hours where snow was affecting service but that ended a few hours ago.

An October article but a good one! If you have any of these creatures near your community, their disappearance or surfacing is a clue that the earth is up to something.

A three-year study of ants in Germany found that before an earthquake, the ants would all leave their mounds, even at night. That raised scientists’ eyebrows, as ants aren’t nocturnal, and being outside after dark exposed them to predators. Nevertheless, outside they stayed, apparently out of fear the tremors would collapse their burrows.

Ants inside a house at night don't necessarily go to sleep. They still crawl.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@The USGS has two hazards maps-one for natural earthquakes and one for earthquakes triggered by human activities. It has come to that reality.

By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the U.S.,” Mark Petersen, Chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project said in a statement.

“This research also shows that much more of the nation faces a significant chance of having damaging earthquakes over the next year, whether natural or human-induced.”

Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas are at risk of experiencing the most significant earthquake-related hazards.

“In the past five years, the USGS has documented high shaking and damage in areas of these six states, mostly from [human] induced earthquakes,” Petersen said.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@There have been past earthquake situations in which building standards are blamed for not being followed. Did you know that in Taiwan, after September 1999, buildings could not have tin cans used in wall construction? You may wish to know how old buildings are prior to visiting them. Feb.2016 article references the can as part of the blame for deaths in a condo building that collapsed in Taiwan.

According to CNN, the Taiwanese government has ordered an investigation into the collapse after images emerged showing tin cans built into the walls of the complex.

First responders discovered the cans during rescue operations, Taiwan's state-owned Central News Agency (CNA) reports. It appears they were used as construction fillers in beams.

An engineer told CNA it is illegal to use tine cans "for such purposes" in construction, although it was "not illegal prior to September 1999."

Since September 1999, styrofoam and formwork boards have been used instead, according to CNA.